According to an August 1 article in the San Jose Mercury News which quoted from the latest Nielsen Networking research data, Americans have increased their use of social networking sites by 43% over 2010. Also of note were the findings that Americans spend more time playing games than checking their email.
Reviewing these trends, is it safe to assume that a good portion of these social networking site users would be checking their Farmville plot or getting special power-ups to beat their friends’ Bejeweled score during work hours?
In August 2008 — just 2 years ago — the New York Times, published an article that projected Americans lost $650 billion in productivity by using social networks. Now, businesses are looking a social networking as a business growth opportunity (Business Daily, March 3, 2010) and companies are seeking social networking skills for their staffers (Schwartzman, August 10, 2009).
So where does the loss of productivity in using social networking sites and the skill-building by staff members to later use for business growth cross?
[...] You’ll Get the Report After I Water My Virtual Crops Americans were projected to have lost $650 billion in work productivity due to the distraction [...]